2019 - A Year to remember and weep!

Festive tree in "our" garden

But first: Greetings to readers resident in Spain on Kings' Day! Greyrocks hopes you did not find coal in your shoe this morning or that if you did that it was worth it! It is odd not to be witnessing this ourselves, for here in Goa the date has a different significance:- accommodation prices go down from the peak season level of the last two weeks! We will see an influx of tourist that started in the early hours. (Much more in a later post about tourism statistics!)

 Chloë left a couple of days ago and we have resumed a lifestyle more in tune with our advanced age!  Fortunately both colds are almost over - but more on that later!

2019 was  - for Greyrocks in particular - a "Bad Year"! The early months in Goa were a delight, the bit back in Fuerteventura passed quickly, the time in Montpellier - including the visit by Chloë and Jack had us thinking about relocating, the time in UK had some good times with family and friends, but the dark cloud of Brexit was ever-present - and indeed some foul weather, and then we escaped to France! Oh dear!

Ruth's birthday "chute" changed almost everything and its consequences in terms of disability are still with us - as indeed are communications about hospital bills! For those who missed it, this link has the gory details! It halved our time in Paleo, but by the time we left there Ruth was at least walking well and UK was still in the EU! Nor had we encountered much evident Brexit support amongst the tourists! There was still a glimmer of hope! We end the year thinking that we will never see anything but an insular, selfish, greedy, arrogant and largely impoverished Britain, and a self-destructive World!

So wit, humour and vision are vital and Greyrocks mourns the passing  during 2019 of four anti-establishment geniuses in those fields:

RIP: Neil Innes, Jeremy Hardy, Jonathan Miller and Clive James.

Cheer yourself up (assuming this is all as depressing for you as for Greyrocks) with his gem of a conversation with the last two, our favourite "Bonzo" song and something from Ginger Baker who is another of our heroes now departed.

And a Happy New Decade!!!